Thursday, October 8, 2015

He had
reasonable success in his career ~played 62 Tests making 3320 runs with 5
centuries; 4950 runs in 215 ODIs – 4 centuries, the first of which came at
Pune. Took 218 wickets in Tests and 201
in One dayers. Retired somewhat early from Tests in 2004; ODI in 2006, played
in ICL, captained Chandigarh Lions. The
New Zealand Herald compared his retirement to those of Michael Jordan and Björn
Borg – now in news for different reasons !!

The Mongoose
bat is not the first innovation – there have been some attempts earlier like
the boutique shoulder-less blade used by Lance Cairns in the 1980s, known as
"Excalibur". In 1983 at MCG,
big burly Lance Cairns struck lusty blows (6 sixers in 10 balls) making 52 off
only 25 balls. Cairns played in an era
whence ODI was at its nascent stage.
Remember that he played when India toured New Zealand in 1981. In a test at Basin Reserve, Wellington, Kirti Azad, Yograj Singh (father of Yuvraj
Singh) and a young Ravi Shastri who had just flown in as a replacement made
their debuts. Lance Cairns took 5 for
33.
It is his son, Chris who is in news for wrong reasons.

Christopher Lance Cairns, is an allrounder who played both ODI and
Tests. Chris Cairns also captained the Black Caps on seven occasions, usually
when regular captain Stephen Fleming was unavailable. After his playing career
Cairns went on to become a commentator with Sky Sport New Zealand. He came down
to India played in ICL until he was suspended in October 2008.

The public reason given
for his suspension was under performance due to an ankle injury which put him
in breach of his contract. But in the weeks and months that followed, Cairns
and others were rumoured to be involved in match-fixing. Then in January 2010,
Lalit Modi, chairman of the Indian Premier League, posted this message on this
Twitter page: "Chris Cairns removed from IPL auction list due to his past
record of match fixing. This was done by the Governing body today." The
tweet was followed up by cricket news website, CricInfo, and then Cairns hit
back by taking libel action against Modi in the High Court in the United
Kingdom.

Chris Cairns was
successful and was awarded £90,000 in damages after allegations on
Twitter. Mr Cairns's lawyer stated that
the comments had tainted the career of his client, who played for
Nottinghamshire before a spell in India.
In what was described as the ‘first Twitter libel case’ in England, a
councillor in Caerphilly, Wales, was ordered to pay £3,000 and costs to a
political rival for posting a libellous comment on Twitter. In this case, Mr Modi was also ordered to pay
Mr Cairns' £400,000 legal costs.

The case demonstrated that
posts on Twitter are taken as seriously, in the eyes of the law, as comments
printed in mainstream – though that tweet was in fact read by a small number of
people only. The judge, who sat without
a jury, said Mr Modi had "singularly failed" to provide any reliable
evidence Mr Cairns was involved in match-fixing. He said: "It is obvious that an allegation
that a professional cricketer is a match-fixer goes to the core attributes of
his personality and, if true, entirely destroys his reputation for integrity.

The court was told Mr
Modi's tweet was picked up by cricket website Cricinfo, who withdrew its
report, paid damages and apologised after Mr Cairns complained.

A couple of
later now, the case has taken a different turn.
Cairns is reportedly facing charges of perjury. Media reports suggest that the stakes are high for Cairns. If the
allegations are proven, the British legal system takes a dim view of perjury -
lying under oath - even more so when it is done for financial gain. Also at
stake for Cairns is his considerable cricketing reputation, with his battle to
protect it in essence leading to the circumstances he now finds himself in.

NZ herald reports
that going into the trial Cairns remains
a cricketing great, which heightens world interest in its outcome; after
retiring from the international game he played professionally in England and
the cricketing hot-bed India. Cricket officials will be nervous about what will
be revealed by the evidence presented. Potentially the game could be further
tarnished, irrespective of whether the charges against Cairns can be proved. Black
Caps captain Brendon McCullum and New Zealand Cricket boss David White are
among those down to provide evidence at the jury trial. White is expected to
confirm details around the timing of events, rather than give insights into
whether games were fixed. Several New Zealanders who played in the Indian
Cricket League (ICL) are understood to have made statements to the Metropolitan
Police. Black Caps bowling coach Shane
Bond, players' union representative Heath Mills, bowler Andre Adams, batsman
Hamish Marshall and disgraced former Black Cap Lou Vincent are said to be on
the witness list according to sources close to the game. The list has not been
made public. Vincent pleaded guilty last year to corruption breaches, and
copped a life ban from cricket.

In that case
on Modi’s tweet, the Kiwi was awarded
£90,000 in damages (NZ$180,000), for hurt feelings, injury to reputation and
the need for vindication. Cairns also won about $775,000 in court costs. Now BBC reports that the cricketer r
"manipulated the British legal system", a court in London heard. Chris Cairns
is being prosecuted for perjury after declaring under oath that he had never
cheated at cricket during a libel case in 2012.Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the intentional act of swearing a
false oath or of falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or
in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding.

Mr Cairns, who
is also charged with perverting the course of justice, denies all the charges
against him. Counsel for the Prosecution said Mr Cairns had been "the
golden boy in the cricket world whom every cricketer wished to emulate". During England's first Twitter libel trial,
Mr Cairns said under oath that he had never ever cheated at cricket, which the
prosecution claims is untrue. Mr Cairns won damages of $130,000 (£90,000). The counsel for prosecution told the jury it
would hear evidence from the current New Zealand cricket captain Brendon
McCullum and former team-mate Lou Vincent, who were both "targetted"
by Chris Cairns to help him fix matches. Mr McCullum, she said, refused to have
anything to do with it while Lou Vincent was "corrupted by him".

Mr Cairns is
also charged with perverting the court of justice. It is alleged that he and
co-defendant Andrew Fitch Holland, a barrister friend who had given him legal
advice, asked a witness to give false evidence. The court heard a tape of a
recorded Skype conversation between Mr Fitch Holland and Mr Vincent, who also
played for the Chandigarh Lions under Chris Cairns and has admitted being
involved in match-fixing. The prosecution claims the conversation was an
attempt to induce Mr Vincent to lie to the court in order to help Mr Cairns's
case.

"What all
of this recognised was that Chris Cairns was indeed guilty of
match-fixing," Ms Wass said. Chris Cairns and Andrew Fitch Holland deny
all charges.